A bitterly cold north easterly wind and cloud, accompanied by occasional glimpses of sunshine greeted the competitors for the 7th Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier held at Maver Larford Lakes. All of them hoping that the weather forecasters had got it right for once and there wouldn’t be any rain, which thankfully turned out to be the case.
Drawn on Specimen Lake peg 13, an area where the bigger carp tend to show from and with the wind in his face, Stu decided to fish two lines: one short at approximately five metres, just on top of the shelf and the other at 12 metres. Alternating these lines with the method feeder and pole, feeding little and often, no more than half a dozen pellets at a time, and changing between meat and corn on the hook, he weighed in an all carp 58.20kg, with the biggest fish 22lb 8oz, with another of 14lb for good measure.
Unfortunately there were only 125 competitors fishing out of the 130. There were 17 no shows and only 12 reserves turned up to take the vacant places. The Angling Trust requests that anyone unable to fish in a qualifier should contact them by phone in advance, so that their tickets can be re-allocated to people on the reserve list who want to fish the match. If their ticket can be used by a reserve angler, they will get a refund of their entry fee.
It was two of the reserves who were fortunate enough to get one of these no show tickets that took first and second places in this qualifier, both of whom fish for Maver Midland and know the venue well.
In second place, drawn on Match Lake peg 6, and another past finalist was Les Thompson from Kingswinford, West Midlands. Again with the wind in his face he also decided to fish two lines, one at approximately seven metres down his peg at two metres out from the bank and the other at the same length six metres out. Again alternating the lines and feeding 4mm pellet with pellet as hook bait, he caught a net of F1s steadily throughout the match to finish with a weight of 43.08kg.
In third place was Peter Shryan from St Helens, Merseyside, drawn on Arena peg 38, with a weight of 38.91Kg comprising mainly carp with a few skimmers.
Fourth was Darren Cox, another regular Fish O Mania competitor and past finalist who was drawn on Match Lake peg 17 and weighed in 38.40kg of Carp to 10lb and F1s.
In fifth place, and admitting that he’s fished more Fish O Mania qualifiers than he can count, was Geoff Ringer from Ravensthorpe, Northampton; drawn on Specimen Lake peg 76 he finished the match with a weight of 36,330kg.
